A Ride To Remember Bill

On June 1, I plan to bike 170 miles from the Atlantic Coast at Vero Beach to the Gulf Coast at Clearwater Beach to remember the inspiring bicycle life of the amazing Bill Fox.

Remarkably, I met Bill a single time -- in April 2001 when I was biking a crazy 115-mile route in the Hudson Valley in NY state as part of a goofy newspaper business story on the Stewart's convenience store chain. I had a chance meeting with Bill at a Stewart's store in Goshen. Bill was biking from Middletown, NY into New York City to catch a concert and I was on my zany bike Tour de Stewart's for the story for a daily newspaper called the Middletown, NY-based Times Herald-Record.

Bill and I were both long-distance marathon cyclists who used our bicycles as much as vehicles of meditation as we did as machines that carried us hundreds of miles. So he was a kindred spirit. We both loved sharing our infectious love of bicycling with anyone willing to listen. We were cycling evangelists. The un-saved people called us bicycle enthusiasts.

I included Bill in that Tour de Stewart's newspaper story in 2001.

The next time I wrote about Bill was when I wrote a newspaper story about his death in June 2002.

I saw an obit in my newspaper of a "Bill Fox" on the Times Herald-Record and the obit included a line about his love for bicycling.

Not knowing that this was the same Bill Fox I met a year earlier at that Stewart's store during our bike rides, I interviewed's Bill's wife and wrote a story about Bill. It was during the interview that Margaret Fox, Bill's wife, informed me that Bill enjoyed meeting me during the bike rides one year earlier and he actually kept the story after it ran in the Times Herald-Record.

Margaret had triggered my memory -- yes, her husband was Bill Fox, the amazing Bill Fox who I met a year earlier during that Stewart's store ride.

Three years after Bill's death, I did a personal memorial bicycle ride for Bill by biking 158 miles from the George Washington Bridge at New York City to the state capitol in Albany. Along the way, I phoned in messages to amazing blogger Jeff Houck, who posted live reports about the 158-mile Bill Fox ride on his Side Salad blog.

I also wrote a story about that 158-mile ride in Bill's memory for the Tampa Tribune. Jeff also had a hand in that, being that Jeff was the travel editor at the Tribune at the time. Jeff did a masterful job editing the story.

I had dinner with Margaret Fox while I was visiting the Hudson Valley for the bike ride in her husband's memory. A few weeks later, a package came in the mail. It was a former jersey of Bill's. I wear it only one time a year -- when I do my annual bike around Lake Okeechobee 120-mile ride. I was amazingly touched by Margaret's gesture.

So many people joined the ride in different ways. Take my Hudson Valley pal, Wayne Hall, who I met along the way.


Chris O'Connell, another Hudson Valley friend, rode 80 of the 158 miles with me.


And my Hudson Valley teacher-friend Rosemary Evans even had her second-grade class read 160 books for each of the 160 miles of the bike ride.


The support and love along the way for that Hudson Valley bike ride would have made Bill proud.

So this June 1 will be six years since the amazing Bill Fox died -- and I plan to remember Bill and his legacy of his love for cycling again with another bike ride.

I can't bike in New York in June. But I can bike in my adopted state of Florida. I plan to respect Bill's bicycling spirit by pedaling 170 miles from the Atlantic Ocean in Vero Beach to the Gulf of Mexico in Clearwater Beach. The route will be ultra-simple: State Road 60 coast-to-coast.

Until now, I've mentioned this to only a few people and already I have been touched by the offers of help. Steve Swiger, a fellow Seminole Heights Bicycle Club member, has already offered to sag, while another SHBC memner, Ken Sturrock, has offered to pick me up in Clearwater Beach.

I'm happy to share the ride in Bill's memory with anyone who wants to participate in any way. I'm biking SR 60 the whole way.

You'll know where to find me.

Have You Seen Fred?

This lady was looking for her lost beagle this morning on Bruce B. Downs.

Play Ball

Bicycling comes in all forms -- sure, you have the speedy roadie guys. But there are hybrids bikers and mountain bikers and folks who pedal fat-tire cruisers and BMXers and well, you get the point.

Which brings me to baseball. The Major League Baseball stuff you see on TV is just one form of baseball.

It comes in all types -- like today when I was cycling home from Flatwoods and came upon a ballgame at the Rowlett Park in Sulphur Springs.

I found watching these Rays more fascinating than the big-league version.

The Other Shoe Fell -- Or Another 10,000 Miles.

Another day, another road bike, another odometer turning over 10,000 miles.

This odometer was installed in December 2006 and rolled over from 9999 to 10,000 on the Hillsborough River bridge on Morris Bridge Road as I biked home from Flatwoods county park this norning.

This odometer is on my Trek 5200. I rolled over to 10,000 miles just the other day on my Trek 2200 road bike. That odometer was installed in November 2006.




One pair of 10s.

A Bicyclist's Night At The Movies

Tonight the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club held the inaugural Bike-in Movie Theater in my back yard and 30 cyclists showed up on a Saturday night to share a potluck dinner and a wonderful movie, the 1979 classic Breaking Away.

It's amazing -- just four months ago we were organizing this bike club on my front porch and now we're having regular Saturday morning rides and drawing crowds to events like the Bike-in Movie Theater.

Tonight, SHBC member Steve Swiger was the technical genius behind using a projector provided by Ken Sturrock and Mike and Yvon Limerick set up the screen and brought a ton of items to make the night a success.

David from WMNF came and interviewed Mike about tonight's Bike-in Movie Theater.


Steve was a master whiz on the tech angle of putting the movie on, while Yvon did a terrific job preparing "goodie bags" of snacks and popcorn for everyone. They, along with Mike, made it all happen.


The movie was well received.


Jack Sweeney showed up with the best T-shirt of the night -- the official "Cutters' garb worn by the Bloomington Four who won the Little 500 Bicycle Race at the University of Indiana.


Jack, the famed bike-commuting Ghost Rider, came with his pot luck dinner contribution firmly secure and nestled in his trailer. Check out the straps holding the pot of chili in place.



Jennifer and Lisa flank Tanja and Tanja's traveling pal, Chiquita. But I'd give Chiquita a little doggie helmet.


Earlier in the day, Mike Limerick led an abreviated version of our 22-mile "Long" ride, as we had to turn around after about six miles because of a bad rainstorm and more rain clouds coming our way.

Front Wheel Woes

Sometimes I know the feeling kid.

Editorial Can Apply To Tampa Bay Area, Too

My pal Willie Drye from Plymouth, NC sent me this edoitorial about nicycling in North Carolina. Sounds awfully familiar.

Fear of biking

A rash of car-bicycle accidents in the Triangle is a reminder that North Carolina's road-building standards make leisure or gas-saving bike riding risky at best and deadly at worst. At a time when biking to work or from there to a restaurant at lunchtime could save real money -- and when North Carolinians suffer from an epidemic of obesity -- it seems that the Department of Transportation would be paying extra attention to making state roadways cyclist-friendly.

Bicycling list serves are buzzing about the death last month of Nancy Antoine Leidy, killed when a young man, allegedly driving drunk, plowed into her bike in west Raleigh. A few days later, a woman biking with her husband in Durham County was hit from behind and landed in the hospital in intensive care. The 83-year-old driver was cited for failing to control her speed in the accident that injured Wendy Savage. Such incidents are not uncommon. A bike-motor vehicle accident resulting in injuries occurs about 900 times a year in North Carolina. In 2006, 20 North Carolinians died in bicycle accidents on the road.

Wider roads with built-in bike lanes or shoulders that could accommodate cyclists would reduce significantly the number of accidents, and those features need to be included when roads are repaved. A state highway safety committee said as much during meetings last year, where it was reported that "edge drop offs/shoulder crumble/rutting" and "narrow lanes and shoulders" were the cause of too many auto accidents. Those deficiencies make using the roads to safely ride bikes nearly impossible.

Many people who want to save money and who know the value of exercise would ride bikes more often but don't do so out of fear. Many workers in job centers such as the universities, Research Triangle Park and downtown Raleigh are among likely bike commuters if conditions were improved. Certainly the state needs to provide more education, to drivers and cyclists, about the laws and etiquette of the road. But if North Carolina is to remain the good-roads state in the 21st century, it should do it right and design its roads for both motor and pedal traffic.